Mass production of pizza crusts is an old and wellknown art. The machines employ a dough forming die assembly to press a measured portion of dough placed in a predetermined sized pizza pan to form a pizza crust of a desired shape. Typically the die assembly includes, a base carrying a die face and a sealing or punch ring which is vertically reciprocated via a piston and cylinder arrangement toward and away from an underlying pizza pan loaded with a given quantity of dough. Each reciprocal cycle of the piston assembly constitutes a forming cycle and another dough loaded pan replaces the pan in which the dough has been formed during the prior cycle.
The degree of automation in crust forming process may vary from the fully automated steps from mixing to packaging or to less automated processes requiring more manually handling of the various steps prior to or after the forming cycle.
In most processes, prepared dough is loaded in a pizza pan of a given size and conformation and is subjected to two pressing or forming steps. After the first forming step, the formed dough is proofed. Then a second pressing or forming step and final proofing take place prior to baking in the oven. Proofing is a recognized term of the art relating yeast induced raising typically occurring in most bakery goods.
There are several recognized configurations for pizza crusts, the most popular being termed flat, lipped and deep dish. The primary distinction between these forms is the configuration of the outer rim of the crust. The configuration of the dough forming die face and the pan determines the particular configuration of the outer rim of the crust.
One of the problems which has not been satisfactorily solved with machine-made pizza crust manufacture is the formation of a highly visible, thin extension of the crust extending outward from the remaining portions of the outer rim thereof.
This thin ledge is present in prior art machine-made crusts and is caused by a small amount of dough not being contained between the die face plate, the sealing ring and the inner walls of the pan during the forming process. Due to its thin nature compared to the remaining portions of the outer lip of the crust, this small edge tends to be over browned during the baking process and sometimes forms a very hard, sharp edge, which may cause a slight cut or a painful or unpleasant sensation when the crust is eaten.
Further, the distinct over browning of this small ledge-like protrusion identifies a mass produced crust as compared to a hand-made crust. While this is not a sign of poor quality, some customers deem machine made crusts as less desirable than hand-made crusts.
Despite the ever increasing volume and demand in mass produced, machine-made crusts, the prior art has failed to provide a satisfactory solution to this problem and provide a die forming assembly which eliminates this excess crust line formation and provides a machine-made pizza crust which does not possess this heretofore prior visible difference compared to one which was hand-made.